Whiting Brothers Paper Collectibles
Fairly common paper collectibles from the Whiting Brothers include motel postcards and motel matchcovers and highway maps. (But three particular motel postcards are really hard to find.) With a bit more effort one can acquire a Whiting Brothers "Courtesy Card" (see below). Most difficult to find paper collectibles are gasoline station directories and gas station matchcovers and some other miscellaneous promotional material. The pictures of the paper collectibles presented on this webpage are images acquired from the internet and from my own personal collection.
Postcards and sometimes even matchcovers and highway maps can be acquired at postcard and paper shows around the USA. Matchcovers can be acquired at local matchcover club meetings or regional conventions. All items can be acquired from sellers on internet auction web sites. Retail antique stores, antique malls and general antique shows around the country may have any of these items but I have not had much success at these places.
I do not know how many different Whiting Brothers motel postcards have been created and published. Any motel that was in business over an extended period of time may be documented by multiple different postcards, a new one created perhaps when the establishment was modernized, re-painted, or expanded or when there was a name or ownership change. Or a new postcard image could be created whenever the motel management decided that it was time for a photographer to capture more modern automobiles in the parking lot. But aside from the Flagstaff motel, the two Winslow motels, and the two Holbrook motels, I have seen only one unique postcard for each of the other Whiting Brothers motels. I won't discuss Whiting Brothers motel postcards on this webpage since I did so fairly extensively on the motels webpage.
A matchbook was a small advertising item that would remind the smoker about the business from which it was acquired every time he or she lit up. The Whiting Brothers purchased matchbooks for free distribution to overnight guests of their motels and probably only briefly their gasoline stations. Nearly all matchbooks or matchcovers (matchcovers are flattened matchbooks with the staple and matches removed) that I have seen advertised their motels. The matchbook artwork listed all of the motel locations. The matchbooks were printed with red text over a yellow background like the colors of the Whiting Brothers signage. To the left are displayed five different matchcovers. The front cover declares that the Whiting Brothers were the "Friendliest Folks on Highway 66." The rear covers are a bit different since the artwork changed as new motels were added to the system, or perhaps as some were sold or closed.
The only Whiting Brothers motel that I know that distributed its very own matchbooks during the front strike era was the second one on Hopi Drive in Holbrook, Arizona. See the first four pictures to the right. Note that the matchcover with the gold background indicates that on the motel grounds was not only the Kolob Dining Room and Coffee Shop but also the Kolob Beauty Salon and the Kolob Dress Shop too. One nice feature of some of the Holbrook matchcovers is that a mileage table showing distances from Holbrook to different towns along Route 66 was printed on the inside. It's interesting that these matchbooks refer to the motel as the "Whiting Motor Hotel" and not the Whiting Brothers Motor Hotel. I don't know why. At the far right is a more modern rear strike matchcover from the Whiting Brothers motel in Gallup, New Mexico.
Matchbooks advertising Whiting Brothers gas stations are extremely rare and I don't know why. Obviously the Whiting Brothers owned many more gas stations than they did motels and a hundred or more motorists would patronize each gas station in a day while only a fraction of that number would check into a motel. My guess is that the Whiting Brothers only offered gas station matchbooks for a limited time.
To the left are three early Whiting Brothers gas station matchcovers that are not location-specific. That is, the matchbooks could be distributed from some or all of the Whiting Brothers stations. The left-most matchcover indicates that there were only 21 Whiting Brothers gasoline stations open. Based upon my understanding of the growth of the Whiting Brothers chain, this matchcover is probably from about 1950. The next Whiting Brothers gasoline matchcover promoted "Complete Service Gasoline, Lube and Oil" and, if you wanted to do it yourself, five quarts of motor oil cost just $1.00. At this price this matchcover was probably from the 1950s too. (Some Whiting Brothers stations had no facilities for services like lubrication so this matchcover is not exactly representative of all locations.) And finally to the immediate left is a full-length Whiting Brothers service station matchcover that promoted "1000 Miles of Service Along Hwy. 66"!
To the right is a matchcover that was likely distributed from the Whiting Bros. Oil Company headquarters to employees, vendors, and contacts within the commercial or wholesale part of the business.
Whiting Brothers gasoline station matchcovers from specific locations are very rare too. On the right is a matchcover from the east Flagstaff gasoline station which was adjacent to the Whiting Brothers motel on Route 66. Next to it is a matchcover from the Whiting Bros. Service station in Safford, Arizona. (Safford is in southeastern Arizona and not on Highway 66.) This is an early matchcover since the gas station had a 3-digit telephone number but also notice that the slogan on the rear cover says "in Six Western States." The Whiting Brothers eventually reached seven western states so this cover preceeds the peak years of the Whiting Brothers business. Next to it is a matchcover from the Whiting Bros. station #67 in Gila Bend, Arizona. (Gila Bend is southwest of Phoenix and not on Highway 66.) A hillbilly comic is printed on the rear cover. Even the mispelling of "Whiting" was not enough to stop this matchbook from being distributed to motorists. I guess the spelling was close enough. At the far-right is a much more modern rear-strike matchcover from Hensley's Whiting Brothers service stations in Holbrook, Arizona.
As seen on the left, the Whiting Brothers "Courtesy Card" is a very informative collectible. It is the size of a standard postcard (approximately 3½" by 5½") and is quite useful since it has a highway and town map on one side and a mileage chart on the other side. The map side displays some towns in the California desert region, Arizona, New Mexico, the Texas panhandle, Utah, and tiny parts of southern Colorado and Nevada. All towns that had Whiting Brothers gasoline stations are shown as red dots or red stars so the expanse of their chain can be seen at a glance. The Courtesy Card promised that if the driver displayed the card a "Special Price" for gasoline could be obtained. The map artwork changed periodically as gasoline stations were added or closed so there are multiple versions of this Courtesy Card. Click on this picture to view a larger version of a Courtesy Card.
In 1967 the Whiting Brothers placed a relatively rare "Our 50th Year" red and white sticker to the Courtesy Card prior to distribution. You can see one here.
The Whiting Brothers distributed discount cards in guises other than the Courtesy Card shown above. The folded business card on the left has some interesting information. There are three sketches of the different types or styles of the large Whiting Brothers signs that identified their motels perhaps so travelers could recognize the signs as they searched for the motel in the particular town. It also had a Route 66 map that located their motels as well. Click on the picture for a larger view. The other panel is a table of distances from Oklahoma City which really puzzles me since I have never seen a reference for a Whiting Brothers gas station (and certainly no motel) in Oklahoma City at all. So, what's the point? Does anyone know about any Whiting Brothers business in Oklahoma City? Let me know please. Also puzzling, this folded business card was stamped with red ink from the Whiting Brothers gasoline station in Newkirk, New Mexico. The small card above right also served as a gasoline discount card. It was issued from a station in Kingman, Arizona.
Directories of Whiting Brothers gasoline stations have been published that list each station by location and number. In the very early days the stations were described by town name but later the Whiting Brothers assigned most of their gasoline service stations a unique number and sometimes this number appears in the telephone directories for the towns in which the service stations were located. All of the directories that I have seen are a single card that listed Whiting Brothers service stations open at that time. Some of these directory cards also permitted the driver to obtain a "special price" for gasoline and oil at any of the Whiting Brothers gas stations. There were many versions of the directory cards, printed in different sizes, colors and formats over the years. To the right is a collage of five such directory cards. Notice on the card at the upper left that the manager of the west side Kingman service station was Chet (Chester) Lewis who later went on to build the famous Wigwam Village motel in Holbrook, Arizona, in 1950. Therefore, and also because so few gasoline stations are listed, my guess is that this little directory card dates back to the early 1940s. The other cards are also from either the 1940s or 1950s I believe. I think that the Whiting Brothers quit publishing their large directory cards before the 1960s when the number of gas stations approached close to one hundred.
However to the right is what appears to be a business card with the common dimensions of 2" by 3½" but printed on the rear is a table of towns with Whiting Brothers gasoline stations. (The front and the back of the card have been placed side-by-side so you can see both at a glance.) There is no specific location information like highway number or which side of town each station was to be found so the information is significantly condensed from the larger directory cards seen above. Note that the reference to Highway 66 also includes Interstate 40 so my guess is this little card was printed and distributed in the 1960s.
The Whiting Brothers once owned Ford automobile dealerships in Holbrook and Winslow so it is not surprising that their service stations once had a contest promotion for a new 1960 Ford Falcon automobile. Did you get your raffle ticket?
Whiting Brothers highway maps appear on internet auction web sites on a regular basis. I have a limited understanding of the business of customizing highway maps but the three Whiting Brothers highway maps that I show here are all Rand McNally maps that were modified for the Whiting Brothers. Customization was common among map makers like Rand McNally and Gousha particularly for gasoline and transportation companies. In the case of these three maps, the front and back covers have special artwork for the Whiting Brothers while all of other inside panels appear to be printed with standard map, mileage, and travel information. I have only seen Whiting Brothers maps for the southwest region of the USA as well as for individual states in the southwest but that would make sense since that was their retail area. Some of the Whiting Brothers maps employ a two-color printing process (red and black in the case of one of the maps shown) but some have three colors (yellow added) on the front and back covers. (The big "D-M" on the one map means "Desert-Mountain". That is, Whiting Brothers states on the back of the map that "You'll enjoy more carefree driving for D-M products are styled for our high and dry Desert and Mountain driving.") Into the 1970s gasoline company maps were provided free to motorists stopping at their branded gas stations. Usually the motorist did not even have to make a purchase. Now if a gasoline station (well, "convenience store" today in the USA) even stocks highway maps they are sold.